The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread

[SoCalJasonland]

I received an email back in September that if I kept paying that I would be upgraded from Gold to Gold Plus permanently and Platinum until the end of 2022.  I didn't pause my membership.  I was upgraded from Gold to the Gold Plus, but not the Platinum.  Did this happen to anyone else?  I asked at the park and they said Gold Plus is all I get.  Member chat wouldn't upgrade me past Gold Plus either.

"Jason,

Thank you for being a Six Flags Member -- you truly are one of our most valued guests. These are difficult times, and we know COVID-19 virus has caused many challenges for everyone. Six Flags has created an environment where you can feel safe, introducing new ways to operate to promote social distancing, maximize sanitization, and reduce crowds.

Given the situation with COVID-19, we want to ensure you have the flexibility you need with your Membership this year; therefore, we are offering you two options so you can choose what best suits you.

Option #1: Keep your Membership active and receive a free upgrade to Platinum until the end of 2022. ...."

 

[coasterlvr]

1 hour ago, SoCalJasonland said:

I received an email back in September that if I kept paying that I would be upgraded from Gold to Gold Plus permanently and Platinum until the end of 2022.  I didn't pause my membership.  I was upgraded from Gold to the Gold Plus, but not the Platinum.  Did this happen to anyone else?  I asked at the park and they said Gold Plus is all I get.  Member chat wouldn't upgrade me past Gold Plus either.

"Jason,

Thank you for being a Six Flags Member -- you truly are one of our most valued guests. These are difficult times, and we know COVID-19 virus has caused many challenges for everyone. Six Flags has created an environment where you can feel safe, introducing new ways to operate to promote social distancing, maximize sanitization, and reduce crowds.

Given the situation with COVID-19, we want to ensure you have the flexibility you need with your Membership this year; therefore, we are offering you two options so you can choose what best suits you.

Option #1: Keep your Membership active and receive a free upgrade to Platinum until the end of 2022. ...."

 

hmm, i'm in the same situation.  had a cheap gold membership and was upgraded to gold plus.  i see the email from september you are talking about.   mine doesn't mention being a gold plus at all in the email.  for me, i'm happy with gold plus, but will definitely have emails ready and question it when i go to the park.

[tanthonyam]

Busy on a Monday?  Isn't Spring Break over there  yet? 

I heard they are making people walk a mile to get in, not offering the trams or buses they had before.

[tanthonyam]

 

[ryder]

26 minutes ago, tanthonyam said:

Busy on a Monday?  Isn't Spring Break over there  yet?

There's a lot of different school districts out here, and they all take Spring Break at different times---some before Easter, some after.  So yeah, I can imagine there's still quite a few people on Spring Break.

[SharkTums]

One of the big districts where SFMM is in Valencia has Spring Break this week so...

[coasternut]

18 hours ago, tanthonyam said:

Busy on a Monday?  Isn't Spring Break over there  yet? 

I heard they are making people walk a mile to get in, not offering the trams or buses they had before.

Reservations are sold out for next week except for 1 day - Tuesday at 3:45 and they close at 6. Definitely not worth it...

[tanthonyam]

thats insane

[CedarFlags]

I'm trying to visit with a friend next week, and the earliest reservation time available for a season pass is 12:45pm.  But when I looked under single day ticket, the earliest is 10:30a.  If the reservations are to promote distancing and spread out crowds by limiting the number of people who are in one place, why does it matter what kind of ticket you have?  

 

[Nrthwnd]

^ If it doesn't make sense .... it probably won't, lol.

I am sure a lot of the parks and/or franchises are doing their best, to figure out ways of adhering to whatever Covid Rules are put out in their area,. And at least for a while, there is going to be a lot of WTF moments, with it comes to Seasons Passes, Singe Day tickets, food passes, etc. and ordering/buying them.

I suggest you just grit your teeth, and do the best you can with what you want to get. And good luck on whatever happens for you! 

[ryder]

I'd imagine they set aside a certain number of tickets for passholders, and a certain number for day ticket purchasers.  Otherwise, I could imagine quite easily that large membership demand could nearly lock out any one else possibly hoping to get a 1 day ticket.

[californiarollercoasters]

Finally got to hit this amazing park on Sunday the 11th since last year's closure.

Arrived around 10:45 for an 11:15 reservation. Surprisingly scored the best parking I've ever gotten at Magic Mountain, just beyond Hurricane Harbor. 

Went straight to Full Throttle. Took about 90 minutes. The capacity on this thing right now with COVID is super duper low. Very slow line, and it got PACKED by the time we got off. 

Went on to Twisted Colossus. The employees were absolutely killing it. Pumping trains out left and right. We also got in a solid race (What an experience. Love this coaster till the end of time. Such violent ejector airtime and such a smooooth ride). Line only took about 25 minutes, though I saw it got more crowded later in the day. 

Then hit Apocalypse. The line didn't look too bad but it moved SLOWLY. Operations weren't the best at this coaster. Took about 80ish minutes to get on.  However, I really forgot how great this woodie is. It was a violent, amazing ride, with some great pops of air. Solid coaster. 

We ate at the Chicken Coupe. Food was a total miss. Hockey puck bun and dry chicken (yum). Some of the things we let theme parks get away with is criminal LOL.

Then got on Tatsu. Employees here were also killing it. Running both sides of the station and sending trains out as quickly as possible. It's running at full capacity, because I believe the rows are already 6ish feet apart? Anyways, got on the back seat. Pretzel loop for the win. Running super smooth, too. 

Ended the day at good ole' X2, perhaps my favorite coaster of all time. This too had great operations. It was running at full capacity (like Tatsu, I'm assuming, bc the rows are so far apart). Sat in the backseat. What a DROP. Feels like your soul is getting yanked out of your body. Truly iconic. And missed that final drop. 

Got to sneak on the last train of the night and ride in the back one more time. God, I love this thing. Such a good, solid, intense, crazy coaster. And it's running amazingly. *make sure to keep your head glued to the head rest, and you'll have the ride of your life*

Overall, very solid experience. I've usually gotten on more rides pre-pandemic, but I can't complain. The park is open, I went on a Sunday, and I still got to get on the top 3. Didn't bother with WCR. Some trains only had 4 people on them, and the line looked looooooong. Can't wait to ride in the future, though. 

Regarding COVID, the social distancing in the lines wasn't the best. Didn't really feel like they were distanced at all, honestly, for the majority of the day. But I don't blame the park for that. I blame the park goers. I didn't really mind though, since I'm a lot less worried now that things are better in California. 

Hopefully in the future, as cases continue to drop and vaccines are even more widespread, the park can run coasters at full capacity. But for now, I'm happy with this  

 

 

 

 

[thrillseeker4552]

Nice report. I am happy to hear that Tatsu and X2 are running at full capacity - as they should.

I also hear Batman is getting repainted, which could be part of the reason it is closed. I saw a photo on Instagram of the track getting sandblasted.

[Vekomakid]

Hey everyone! I went to Magic Mountain yesterday (April 13th) and wanted to share some thoughts. First, my ride count for the day with how long I waited for each:

Twisted Colossus-20 min              

Drop of Doom-15 min                 

Superman-45 min (including 20min breakdown)                                        

Viper-10 min                                         

X2-1 hr 20min                               

Scream-15 min                                  

Tatsu-15 min

Overall I had a good day and managed to get on more rides than anticipated. Operations were a mixed bag with multiple rides going down throughout the day. However, no breakdown lasted more than 30 minutes and crowds completely cleared out once open. On the positive side, Tatsu was running both stations and Twisted Colossus dueled quite frequently. Long wait times were easily avoided in the morning and closing time, but in the afternoon every major ride had at least an hour wait (hence my X2 wait above).

Now on to how they’re handling the pandemic. Mask compliance was fine with a handful of noses sticking out every once in a while, but not any worse than like your local mall. 6 feet distancing was certainly a problem though with markers being completely ignored in queues and stations (especially Twisted Colossus and Tatsu). I know this mostly falls on the park guest to do their part, but when the station is overcrowded there should a little bit of crowd control from the workers. Also, not once did I see any sort of sanitizing on the coasters. Supposedly they sanitize every 30 minutes, but It didn’t happen at all yesterday on the trains or railings in the queues, which is concerning. 

Overall, I was happy to be back after over a year of no theme parks. I don’t know if I’ll come back anytime soon though with how they’re handling the pandemic. I can’t really blame Six Flags as it’s the park guests that aren’t spacing out in lines correctly. But I feel six flags could try a bit harder to fix these problems. Anyway, I had a decent day but there were times I felt uncomfortably close to others in lines and stations, and the lack of sanitizing was very apparent. 

Lmk if you have any questions and I could try to answer them.

 

[ryder]

I'm very covid cautious, but even the CDC recently said that transmission of covid from a surface is basically non-existent.  I figure that's a pretty good reason for them to stop with the cleaning of surfaces.

The social distancing is tough, because it depends on so many other people, and people visit amusement parks not to think.  But I've generally found if you politely ask people to keep space, they generally will.  Keep masking up and get that vaccine, and with most of the queues being outdoors anyway, you'll likely be fine.

[southpuddle]

56 minutes ago, ryder said:

I'm very covid cautious, but even the CDC recently said that transmission of covid from a surface is basically non-existent.  I figure that's a pretty good reason for them to stop with the cleaning of surfaces.

Yeah, you’re much better off just thoroughly washing your hands every couple of hours while you’re at a theme park than you are relying on a half-assed “sanitizing” of ride vehicles. Not just from covid, but you know, the common cold, flu, etc. 

Thanks for the report, Vekomakid. Hopefully by June when the governor out there says all covid restrictions can be lifted, we won’t have to deal with reservations/cut capacity/blocked rows, etc.

[californiarollercoasters]

5 hours ago, Vekomakid said:

Hey everyone! I went to Magic Mountain yesterday (April 13th) and wanted to share some thoughts. First, my ride count for the day with how long I waited for each:

Twisted Colossus-20 min              

Drop of Doom-15 min                 

Superman-45 min (including 20min breakdown)                                        

Viper-10 min                                         

X2-1 hr 20min                               

Scream-15 min                                  

Tatsu-15 min

Overall I had a good day and managed to get on more rides than anticipated. Operations were a mixed bag with multiple rides going down throughout the day. However, no breakdown lasted more than 30 minutes and crowds completely cleared out once open. On the positive side, Tatsu was running both stations and Twisted Colossus dueled quite frequently. Long wait times were easily avoided in the morning and closing time, but in the afternoon every major ride had at least an hour wait (hence my X2 wait above).

Now on to how they’re handling the pandemic. Mask compliance was fine with a handful of noses sticking out every once in a while, but not any worse than like your local mall. 6 feet distancing was certainly a problem though with markers being completely ignored in queues and stations (especially Twisted Colossus and Tatsu). I know this mostly falls on the park guest to do their part, but when the station is overcrowded there should a little bit of crowd control from the workers. Also, not once did I see any sort of sanitizing on the coasters. Supposedly they sanitize every 30 minutes, but It didn’t happen at all yesterday on the trains or railings in the queues, which is concerning. 

Overall, I was happy to be back after over a year of no theme parks. I don’t know if I’ll come back anytime soon though with how they’re handling the pandemic. I can’t really blame Six Flags as it’s the park guests that aren’t spacing out in lines correctly. But I feel six flags could try a bit harder to fix these problems. Anyway, I had a decent day but there were times I felt uncomfortably close to others in lines and stations, and the lack of sanitizing was very apparent. 

Lmk if you have any questions and I could try to answer them.

 

I agree on the distancing, it was pretty bad when I was there. They had some employees by the Tatsu line to monitor, but they said nothing to non-distancing park-goers. I went to Disney World in December and they almost threatened to kick people out for wearing a mask below the nose. Definitely a difference in handling the situation. 

I definitely did not see any sanitizing on rides while I was there either, and I have to say, the hand sanitizer they have across all Six Flags parks has the consistency of vodka. It's THIN. However, I'll do what it takes for my favorite park hahahaha.

If you're getting vaxxed up and wear your mask, the risk is very little, and hopefully you'll be able to enjoy in the future. Thanks for the report! 

[Jew]

In fairness to the park, I have not been anywhere recently that is actually still enforcing social distancing in common areas.  It’s treated as a suggestion at this point.  As others have mentioned, the CDC has found that the risk of exposures from surfaces is extremely low.

I should also add that you should not being going to a theme park if you are worried about social distancing.  If you are willingly going to a place you know there will be thousands of strangers, you are assuming the risks with that.

[tndank]

New rumors suggest Flash Pass is moving to cellphones very soon.  That's one way to fix the 1.5 hour lines to get the device and no risk of losing the device, etc.

Good move.  Will be interesting to see how parks that are hard on bags and lockers try to accomplish this.

 

[Canobie Coaster]

^ I would especially be interested at Six Flags Great Adventure if they try to push this chainwide.  To my knowledge, that park is the only one in the chain with rides that do not allow guests to enter into certain queue lines with a phone.

[tndank]

I would have to think it's like Dollywood and SEAS where you could also print it and just use that.  You can also have CS at these parks print one off for you. Hope it goes chain wide soon. Would be nice for sure. 

[dankeykang]

I've heard that Steel Vengeance is adding free lockers this year for smaller loose articles like phones/wallets/keys, while bags and larger items will still require paid lockers.  Maybe Six Flags could have something similar?

[Canobie Coaster]

I saw a report online that Magic Mountain has some single rider lines open currently.  Is this actually correct?

[californiarollercoasters]

On 4/15/2021 at 7:40 AM, Jew said:

In fairness to the park, I have not been anywhere recently that is actually still enforcing social distancing in common areas.  It’s treated as a suggestion at this point.  As others have mentioned, the CDC has found that the risk of exposures from surfaces is extremely low.

I should also add that you should not being going to a theme park if you are worried about social distancing.  If you are willingly going to a place you know there will be thousands of strangers, you are assuming the risks with that.

It's also completely fair to criticize Six Flags for not living up to its promises. I saw this viral TikTok yesterday with 1.5 million views. https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMe9UFhRt/

[AmyUD06]

LOL in the shot of people with "no masks," literally no one did not have a mask, and only one wasn't wearing it halfway-properly.  That guy might have just taken a sip from the souvenir cup that he's carrying.  Sorry, but a sample size of 3 does not indicate anything.

Also, for your own furthering intelligence, I'd recommend staying off of TikTok.